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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4438935" data-attributes="member: 743">I wasn't surprised, but I did lose initiative. Unless you know how to avoid a burrowing monster (that you don't know the location of) without taking any actions, I don't see how staying out of melee range with it was an option.Right, I said all that already. Our powers in that area had already been used to fight off the grabs of dire stirges. Yep. Out of character we all assumed purple worm, and at least I assumed that being swallowed was a possibility. It never crossed my mind that once I was swallowed I'd be removed from the combat and forced to watch myself slowly die.Point 2 wasn't bad luck, it was good tactics in a previous battle. Point 3 wasn't bad luck, it was a near impossibility. No wizard who has already used his only teleport can escape the grab of a purple worm 2 levels higher than him without rolling extremely well. Point 4 was not bad luck, it was good tactics that have never failed us in the past. The damage I'd taken was worrisome, but not incredibly frightening. There was no reason for him to heal me then and there, when he could heal me later and get more out of it. Without the swallowing (and the resulting negation of everything I can do), even two more attacks at that damage wouldn't have dropped me.I ask again: how do you avoid a creature who won initiative when you don't know where it is other than "down"? I'm not looking for safety, I'm looking for fun. I've had character deaths galore. Until 4e's swallow whole, I'd never had an encounter that made me wish I'd stayed home.I reiterate.: I used Force Orb, which is better than Thunderwave (for me it;s the same push, but more damage). I didn't roll the 18 I needed to hit. Sure, Thunderwave could work, but it's far from the obvious solution you seem to think it is.I won't lay the fight out round by round, but we did everything we possibly could have done that didn't require OOC knowledge we didn't have. The problem wasn't the party's or GM's tactics, it was the existence of a monster who can push the off button on a PC.Yes, he could have healed me. I even asked if he would, but he didn't because I wasn't bloodied, and we tend not to heal each other unless we're in dire straits. Since nobody knew that the monster would turn me off if I became bloodied, nobody knew that me having taken a few (20ish) points of damage was dire. Without that unknown off button in place, we've been in much worse positions.We'd have slapped it silly if I hadn't been completely negated after taking one ineffectual action. As a 12th level Blood Mage, I can add all sorts of damage capability and other fun stuff to a fight.If you wish to run monsters that create unavoidable off switches for 90+% of a PC's abilities, that's your choice. I have no problems with any of the decisions the DM made. He took a monster that made sense for the setting, followed the DMG's rules to bring it down to what should be a hard fight, and then played it according to its writeup in the MM. I did. I also came here. In any case though, one of the stated design goals of 4e is to not create situations that completely (or almost completely) negate a PC. That's why most things are now save ends, and it's why there are no effects that are save or die. Swallow Whole fails completely in this regard, as it shuts down characters with no hope of escape once it hits. If you use it, great. If your players don't mind being taken out of the combat with little to no chance of escape, and they enjoy sitting there rolling a d20 every round hoping to get lucky enough to do next to nothing, that's great too. I know I'll never use anything with that ability when I'm running. I prefer for the players to be able to play. That's kinda why we're sitting around the table.</blockquote>

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